The Many Faces of Clark Porter

As a future football star (and by football I mean soccer), Clark likes to sport the David Beckham mohawk.

Check out my guns. Booyah!

Full, fed, and out cold.

Look at me! I'm a baby burrito!

Clark's First Week!

It's been wild to see how quickly time goes by when you have a new baby. Also, it's been great to have Alli's family come into town and stay with us for a while. Paul, Julia, and Amelia flew into town on Saturday and have been loving on Clark for the past three days. As for Clark, he is a great baby. He isn't that fussy, sleeps well, is alert when awake, and eats like a champ. Although he dropped down to 7 lbs, 13 oz on Friday, he is back up to 8 lbs, 5 oz today. That's half a pound in three days! We may have a little chunk on our hands in a short while. Here are some pics of what's been going on in the Porter house for the past few days.

Clark's first trip to the doctor. As you can tell, he didn't want to go.

Grandma Julia's first time holding Clark

Grandpa Paul and Clark

Auntie Mimi's first time with Clark

This was what it was like for the first hour they were here. They couldn't get enough of Clark.

John, Alexis and Hillary joined us for some bonding and barbecue.

A Poem From Great Grandma

My grandmother (Ben's mom's mom) always likes to write poems when it's a special occasions. She wrote one when we moved to Oregon. She wrote one when we first got pregnant. And now she has even written a poem to welcome Clark into the family. Since it's so cute, we thought it would be fun to share with everyone else.

It's a bird? It's a plane?
I hear a loud cry? Am I going insane?
With the strength of an eagle,
He came down to earth-
A wonderful gift, a special birth!
Clark will amaze us, fill us with fear,
He'll fly like an eagle - run like a deer.
Life won't be the same,
For joy he imparts,
Superman's landed to steal
ALL our hearts!

He love you, too, Great Grandma Girl - G3!

Clark's First Day Home!

After getting some rest (only about 4 hours), we had another great day with friends and family. Mary Towell, Tammy Eaton (McKinley Friends), and Nicole Langton came to say hi and meet Clark. Later that night, Great Aunt Alexis and Great Uncle John came to welcome Clark and take part in baby's first Star Wars Trilogy. (Don't worry. They were the original three pre-Lucas messing with them.) They were the only VHS tapes we still owned so we decided to bust them out to help pass time. He really liked Empire Strikes Back. This morning we woke up early and did all of the wrap-up stuff at the hospital. Alli and Clark got to spend some great time bonding while I got some much needed sleep. (I was on the night shift. :) Then we dressed him up in his new duds and brought him home. It's nice to finally be in a familiar place...with a great bed! We'll post more pics of him later this week, but for the time being enjoy some fun shots of the last few days.

Great Aunt Alexis and Great Uncle John with Clark (with Han and Leah in the background)

Mary Towell and Tammy Eaton with Clark

Mommy and Clark

I'm Full!

Alli and Clark love Snuggle time!

Who would have though putting on baby shoes would be so hard.

Daddy's little man in his first outfit.

Home at last!

Clark Alden Porter is Here!

Coming in at 8 pounds, 12 ounces and 21 inches, Clark was born last night at 10:22 P.M. He was totally healthy. Alli is also doing great and is healing up nicely. We're all so glad that he is here and thank all of you so much for the prayers and support you have and are still giving us. Special thanks to Travis and Beth, who hung in there and waited in the waiting room to support us and help us welcome Clark. (The steaks were awesome!) Even the staff was super awesome! Those ladies (and the dude who gave Alli her epidural) knew what they were doing. Here are some pics of Clark and us at the hospital when he was first born, his first bath, his hearing test (with the cool baby ear phones), and more.

We love Clark. He's super!
(Someone had to make the joke sooner or later so I guess I should be the first.)

Baby's first cockroach

Ok, so I suppose I should explain this first...My (Alli) mom's family has this big, fake cockroach (la cucaracha) that has somehow become a little bit of an inside joke. It travels from family to family and always seems to show up in the most unusual places - I believe la cucaracha was even a part of our wedding ceremony! Usually enough time passes in between his little appearances that we can't even remember who has him - which is also why I think there are actually 2 cockroaches being passed around. So it came as a bit of a surprise when I opened up a package from Aunt Jeanie last week with a very nice hand-knit blanket, only to find la cucaracha at the bottom of the box with his very own hand-made blankie! Thanks, Aunt Jeanie! Baby is now officially part of the family! Now if only he would come out...

Showers, showers, and more showers!

So, I know I (Alli) have been a bad blogger – blame it on all of the nesting or the pregnancy-brain! Instead of staying up on blogging about all of the showers we have had, they are now all going into one massive post. Hope you enjoy the pictures and make sure you check the few posts beneath this one – they’re new too!

Let me start by saying that I don’t think I have ever felt so blessed! Ben and I have had four baby showers in the last few months and we have been showered with tons of great gifts, but mostly just showered in lots of love. I am amazed by and so thankful for the people who took the time to organize these events for us. They have all been so different, but so much fun.

The first shower was in California with all of my family and friends south of the (Oregon) border. Natalie, Annie, and Vicki did such a great job hosting the ridiculous amount of women and children that showed up that day (somewhere around 35!). The food was great, the games were fun, and the company was the best. I miss everyone there so much and to see everyone all at once was just perfect. Thank you for all showing up on Valentine’s Day and on a three-day weekend!

The second shower was hosted by some very lovely ladies at my work. They put together a super-cute shower in the library complete with an amazing cake made by Michelle (pic below). I am absolutely loving my job and love the group of people that I get to work with. I am so thankful for such wonderful coworkers who would put together such a nice shower. I also got a great gift card from many people in the office that was put to very good use at Babies R Us!

The third and final shower for me was with hosted by the wonderful Stephanie Fitts with some girlfriends from church and Aunt Alexis and the girls. I was so glad that we were all able to come together (we have very crazy schedules!). Again, everything was great – right down to Stephanie’s super yummy mini quiches and cupcakes. Oh, I do have to mention that we also had teething biscuits and juice boxes since McKenzie (Steph’s daughter) was worried that Baby Porter wouldn’t have any kid-food at the shower!

The final shower was hosted by some of the staff at Ben’s school. Since the shower was for two guys (Ben and his coworker, Mat), they decided to head over to McMenamin’s for some beer and yummy food. I have to admit that I thought this would be a kind of laid-back affair – boy, was I ever wrong! They went all out! Tons of McKinley staff showed up to eat, drink, and be merry with us – complete with my favorite Costco cake and a huge pile of gifts for the two guys. Having had three showers myself, it was fun to let Ben open all of the presents this time. We got so many great items that we needed and tons of other cute stuff that I know Baby Porter will love. My personal favorite was the Golden Books cardboard Baby’s First Bible – it’s so cute!

Thank you so much to everyone who helped out and come to these showers or has just shown us and Baby Porter some extra love over these last 8 months. We love you all so much and can’t wait to introduce you to Baby Porter!

Annie and Natalie, my wonderful hostesses in Visalia

Stephanie and Abi and Jolie and Ethan (my practice baby for the day)

Ashley and Quinn

My side of the family - Amelia, Mom, Aunt Franny, me Aunt Ruthann, Anastasia, Grandma, Sarah, Savannah, and Kristin - thanks for coming!

Ben's side of the family - Grandma Porter, Aunt Michelle, Aunt Yvette, me, Christine, and Violet throwing up gang signs (?)

Isaac, Violet, me, Audrey, and Jamie (Ben's sister)

The WHOLE gang (minus Amelia who offered to stand on a chair for five minutes and try to direct all these women)!

OHSU Shower, Molly on my right

Cake at my OHSU shower, Michelle placed all those almond slices by hand and Emily pulled a Martha Stewart and made dried pineapple flowers!

The spread at Stephanie's and Beth

The cousins, Joanna and Hillary

Lastly, no trip to Fresno/Visalia would be complete without some In N Out and Henry Salazar's - I went to both places twice!

Yum!

Henry's with the fam!

The belly

I keep taking pictures and not posting them, so now you get to see the evolution of the belly from the last few weeks.

34 Weeks

35 Weeks

So I'm 36 weeks now, but don't have a picture. I'll try to take one this week for 37 weeks. For now, though, I'll leave you with this pic - Ben think it's funny that I don't even really look pregnant! This is why women wear black!

MLS in 2011!!!

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